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Parent Trap

Many families are getting hurt according to internet safety expert Parry Aftab.

“I’ve represented a lot of parents who’ve come to me when they have been fired, they’ve been demoted, or they’ve been called on the carpet because of what their kids posted online,” Attab said.

Aftab says many teens still don’t get it, that their posts on networking and blogging sites aren’t private.

“I always warn kids never to post anything that parents, principal, predators can’t see. Now, I have to warn them not to post anything that their parents’ boss or anybody in their neighborhood shouldn’t be seeing either,” Attab said.

Sgt. Corey MacDonald agrees. He tours the country speaking about internet safety, and says police and employers are watching. They look for, and find, all kinds of dirt.

“Whether we’re talking about dad’s work secrets or problems between mom and dad with their relationship,” Sgt. MacDonald said.

We asked him to show us just how easy it is to find incriminating posts. It didn’t take long.

“Not only do I have to live with my nagging mom, my dad does drugs. This person, Tara, says her parents are lazy alcoholics,” reads Sgt. MacDonald.

The net the net can be a useful tool for children. probably at no time in history have the youngest members of the household had access to such a powerful toll for communication. In 2003 there were 906,000 victimized children in America - about 70% experienced some kind of neglect while 18% were physically abused and many suffered some form of sexual abuse. Some of you may have heard about the eight year old that just recently used a cell phone while driving with a drunken mother to call police. I’ve heard the recordings and he displayed an amazing amount of courage and sophistication for an either year old. So technology can be a great tool for kids to let the world know that their lives are not playing out like the Brady Bunch. On the other hand many adults can have loud arguments that while disturbing to some children are hardly worthy of being posted on the net for the parent’s employers and friends to read about. I’m very sympathetic to abused to children for personal reasons and donate to an organization that helps abused children, but my personal sympathies aside I know that some children can misunderstand adult behavior and while some children can be brave and sophisticated like that eight year old, some can also be manipulative ( for a worse case example see the movie based on Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour (1961). Any parents reading this already knows what I mean. Children plus family secrets equals a challenging cultural aspects of the net as a interactive element in growing up and how families conduct themselves - all potential net reality stars. The net can be a healthy way for kids to vent, to anonymously share experiences with other kids without peer ridicule and to put a spotlight on child abuse, but I can also see some basically good parents getting in trouble because of a kid seeking revenge for taking away their TV privileges or not getting them what they wanted for their birthday.

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Top four reasons why conservatives should stop using the term Islamofascism, and an explanation of what ideas and policies they should be promoting instead.

Islamofascism misrepresents modern terrorism and Islam.

Islamofascism oversimplifies the challenge.

Islamofascism poisons meaningful discourse.

Islamofascism hurts our national security interests.

We certainly need language to describe and analyze our challenges, but Islamofascism isn’t helping. Fortunately, there are ways to talk about and respond to terrorism that don’t fall into the same traps. Ackerman has suggested that we use the term “anti-Western Salafist jihadism” for its “relative precision.” Although it may not be catchy, the subsequent blog discussion confirms that it’s a good first step toward meaningful consideration of the words we use to describe our battles.

Furthermore, instead of scaring and insulting people with a mindless and divisive campaign, those who insist on using the term Islamofascism should instead join the rest of America as it attempts to prevent terrorism and encourage peaceful, democratic societies through homeland security and national security policies that effectively protect our borders and people; intelligence and research that accurately analyzes the true nature and capacities of both terrorist groups and Muslim communities; determined diplomacy that presses for peaceful solutions to difficult conflicts; and resurgent efforts to promote democracy, openness, tolerance, and prosperity through peaceful means.

Campus Progress goes into much more detail regarding each bolded title above. None of this of course means that there are not people out there who are not going to listen to reason and are intent on committing violence against others. They are like a tumor and rather then precisely cutting out the tumor we’re seem to have declared war on one billion people - Islam is in fact the world’s largest religion.